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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28487043">i do love you so.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ongreenergrasses/pseuds/ongreenergrasses'>ongreenergrasses</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/F, Female Friendship, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Marriage Proposal, Nonbinary Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Nonbinary Character, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, also i've done it again, and if we do not have it i will create it myself, heavy on the friendships here because we need more quynh and nile and andy friendship in this fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:15:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28487043</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ongreenergrasses/pseuds/ongreenergrasses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The day that Quýnh comes back isn’t anything like Nile expected. It's better.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>94</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Andromaquynh Secret Santa 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i do love you so.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Moon_When_I_Am_Lost/gifts">The_Moon_When_I_Am_Lost</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>a gift for <a href="https://themoonwheniamlost.tumblr.com/">themoonwheniamlost</a>. fair warning, i think my teeth might have actually genuinely rotted a little bit from the amount of fluff here. i hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The day that Quýnh comes back isn’t anything like Nile expected.</p><p>Nile knew that she was coming because the dreams had changed. Quýnh used to feel crazy. Those dreams with the water pressing down all around her, and the darkness, and the irritating tickle of fish, and the endless, all-consuming rage and panic and sadness and fear, everything always tinged with a sour tint of fear – yeah. Quýnh felt crazy. But the dreams stopped for a little bit, and then Nile started dreaming about Booker, which she didn't really think about that much. When she did think about it, she assumed that these dreams were just some weird subconscious guilt. She felt a little bit guilty about how everything had turned out with him, but she didn't feel <em>bad </em>about it. Then one night during a dream, she caught a glimpse of Quýnh in a mirror and realized that there might be a little bit more to these dreams than she’d thought at first. She hadn’t even realized that it was still Quýnh she was dreaming of because it had all felt so different. She wasn’t calm, and there was still that frisson of panic running through her, but she felt more stable.</p><p>She didn’t tell Andy about how her dreams had changed. Or Joe, or Nicky. At this point, Nile didn’t want to get any of their hopes up. It was weird, maybe she was too protective of these people that were at least nine hundred years old and could clearly take care of themselves, but also, she’d come into their lives at a time when they couldn’t. She thought that explained a little bit of her attitude about the whole thing. </p><p>Plus, even though she could feel a little bit of what Quýnh was experiencing, she didn’t know what Quýnh’s plans or motivations were. She felt more stable, yes, but she might’ve decided to stay with Booker through his exile and then would never come back during Andy’s lifetime, or she might end up snapping and stringing them all up by their thumbs for leaving her behind, and Nile didn’t want to tell her new family and then cause them to have any expectations of Quýnh. She didn't know her yet, but Nile was going to live with Quýnh and be part of her family for a long time, so she also wanted to also protect her and give her some space to heal.</p><p>Quýnh comes back to them once they’ve relocated to Melbourne. It’s important for them to establish themselves in the community or their next job won’t necessarily work out, so they’re planning to lay low for about six months. Honestly, the break is nice. Nile’s out on the porch of their mediocre duplex drinking her coffee and reading some crime novel. She’s got a huge list of books in her notes app and now that she’s got more time than she can even conceptualize she’s been working through all of them. Half of the books are shit, but Nile excuses her bad taste by the fact that she was pretty busy before she died the first time. She wasn’t reading a lot of book reviews, just writing down titles that people told her.</p><p>It’s pretty early in the morning, and Nile knows that Andy and Nicky were up shooting the shit until 3am the night before, and that Joe doesn’t get up before 10 unless he needs to do something. So she isn’t expecting anyone to disturb her, which is the excuse she makes to herself when a slight knock on the porch railing and someone lightly saying “hello, Nile,” makes her leap about three feet into the air and kick over her coffee.</p><p>Nile looks up, because she doesn’t really recognize that voice, and is greeted by – “hello, Quýnh,” she says slowly, reaching down to pick up her mug. She doesn’t know if she should run inside or grab the knife that she’s stashed under the chair cushion or what to expect, really, but Quýnh somehow picks up on what she’s thinking and laughs.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” she says, “I’m not here to hurt you.”</p><p>“Hmmm,” Nile says.</p><p>“It’s all right,” Quýnh reiterates. “May I?” Nile shrugs, because she doesn’t really want to tell Quýnh no, not when she hasn’t got a good read on her mental state, and Quýnh comes to perch lightly on the porch railing.</p><p>“Are you here to see Andy?” Nile says bluntly, once the quiet has settled around them like a blanket and Quýnh doesn’t seem like she’s about to make any sudden moves.</p><p>“Yes,” Quýnh says. “I wanted to talk to you and the boys before I saw her. But I know they are no good at keeping secrets and I think Yusuf still wears his emotions on his face from what I’ve seen in our shared dreams, so I wanted to talk to you alone first.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“I am – well. I wish to…” Quýnh looks – shy? Nile doesn’t know her well enough to really know what emotion flutters over her face, briefly, before she smooths her features back out into placidity. “Things are different, now, and I’ve had a lot of time to think. And I talked to my therapist about it, and - ”</p><p>“You went to therapy?”</p><p>“Of course,” Quýnh says, fixing her with a stare that clearly says <em>do you think I’m an idiot? </em>Nile doesn’t really know what to think of her, to be fair, but the bits she does know about Quýnh are reshuffling rapidly in her mind. “I first went to stay with Booker because I saw that he was beginning to work on improving his own mind during his exile. He was going to so many meetings and I thought maybe he could help me find the tools to adapt to how the world has changed, as well as overcome my…own anguish. I am sorry to have stayed away from you all for so long, but I wanted to think and heal and adjust first." Nile doesn't understand how someone like Quýnh could possibly come up with a reasonable cover for going into therapy, but whatever works. "My therapist thinks I hit my head and came from a conservative family, it’s not important.”</p><p>Yeah, her ability to almost read Nile’s mind is starting to freak her out a little bit. “She has told me that things are better in the world but especially for people like us – women can be together, and men,” Quýnh continues. “I wanted to talk to you in particular before I saw the others because I’m sure Andromache has changed during my time away, and I want advice on how to court her. Properly.”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Nile says, because her brain's sort of given up at this point, “but it sounds like you want to date Andy?”</p><p>“Yes,” Quýnh says slowly. She doesn’t seem like she thinks Nile is an idiot, but she also doesn’t seem very impressed. “We were together before, of course, but things are different now, and I want to adapt to modern customs. And she may like different things now. So, will you tell me a little bit about her? About what she likes these days? Or…how I should go about this? You are the youngest, you know the most about how the world is operating now.”</p><p>Quýnh is nervous, Nile realizes. She is nervous, because she doesn’t know how her advances will be received, and she is nervous, because she doesn’t know what to do, and she is nervous, because she doesn’t know if Andy still wants her.</p><p>“Okay,” Nile says. “There’s a lot to catch up on, yeah, but I want to tell you something important first.” Quýnh’s eyes snap to hers and it looks like she’s bracing herself for bad news. Nile’s got that last part right, then. “Andy still loves you. Andy’s loved you this whole time. The guilt they feel about not being able to save you, leaving you behind, and then not being able to find you again, is horrible. It's eaten them up every day for the last five hundred years. I learned about you the day I met everyone for the first time and I've never seen any of them upset like that since then. Andy had to leave the room when the guys talked about you, it was obviously too painful for them to even listen. Andy loves you so much, and whatever you do is going to be well received, because things have changed, yeah, and maybe Andy isn’t into the same shit they were before you went away, but you still probably know them best, because when you were together you saw parts of them that the rest of us haven’t ever seen.”</p><p>“Them?” Quýnh asks, cocking her head.</p><p>“Right,” Nile says. “There’s a lot of stuff to go over.”</p><p>The two of them spend the next few hours out on the steps together as the sun rises. Nile goes inside to get more coffee and comes out with a mug for Quýnh and a scone, both of which Quýnh practically inhales. Nile explains whatever she can think of to start about Andy. How they don't go by Andromache, or Andrea, but Andy, now. How Andy’s relationship with gender is fluid – Quýnh nods at this, so this isn’t new – but Andy fluctuates between she and they pronouns these days, which seems to be news to Quýnh.</p><p>“We have spoken so many languages,” Quýnh says. “Many of them are not gendered. My language has some genders. Andy’s oldest language did not. It is just important for me to know how they prefer to be referred to in modern English.”</p><p>Andy likes horses still, which makes Quýnh’s eyes brighten. Andy doesn’t read as much as it seems that they had in the past; Nile’s never seen them read a book, but sometimes they pick up magazines. Andy still loves camping and baking, but no longer hates the cold. They’re more religious than they had been when Quýnh went under the sea, but the multitude of earrings they wear are new. Quýnh produces a notepad from somewhere inside her coat and begins taking careful notes halfway through their conversation. She's bursting with a million questions. “And what is their favorite color?” Quýnh asks. And “do they still like sweets, does Nicolò still give them sweets as a gift?” And “do they wear Greek braids in their hair still? Do they add beads to them?” And “we used to listen to consort works together before I went away - ” she says <em>before I went away</em>, never <em>before I went into the sea</em> or anything like that – “does Andy still like those?” Nile has to google that one, but it turns out Quýnh means the precursor to orchestral pieces, and Andy still loves music almost more than anyone Nile’s ever met.</p><p>“Oh yeah,” Nile says, “Quýnh, I gotta show you all of the ways people listen to music now and the different types of music, you’re gonna love it,” and that’s how Nicky finds them on the porch, heads bent over Nile’s phone as she shows Quýnh Spotify. Nicky lets out a very high-pitched sound that's not quite a scream and there’s twin crashes from inside the house as Andy and Joe automatically respond to him.</p><p>“You’ve got about 15 seconds before they’re both out here,” Nile says, elbowing Quýnh, and Quýnh half smiles at her in return before getting up to coo something at Nicky, who’s now crying, and pull him into a hug.</p><p>They all adjust pretty quickly to Quýnh’s arrival. Quýnh keeps strict appointments with her individual therapist, as well as calling into what seems to be some sort of group therapy twice a week. She starts looking for art therapy that she can do in person in Melbourne. Normally Andy would protest this type of thing, Nile knows, but they're trying to integrate into the community anyway. Plus, Andy’s weak spot is of course Quýnh, and after a discussion between all five of them where both Nile and Andy are pushing the importance of therapy and the need to make Quýnh happy, respectively, they get her an art therapist as well. So Quýnh works on her healing and learns more and more about the world, and after about a month of this, her focus (and she’s got a laser focus, Nile learns, which is probably one of the reasons why she and Nicky are almost inseparable) starts to shift to what they’d first talked about on the steps – courting Andy.</p><p>(<em>Dating</em>, Nile tried to correct her once, <em>it’s usually called dating,</em> and Quýnh had turned her nose up at that – <em>that is not very romantic, Nile</em>.)</p><p>“I am going to take a cooking class,” Quýnh announces in her typically blunt fashion about six weeks after she’s moved in. “I don’t know how to work modern ovens.”</p><p>“We can show you,” Nicky offers immediately, but Quýnh waves him off.</p><p>“It is good for me to learn more about the world,” she says. “I am taking a class.” Nobody can really argue with that. Nile is the only one who knows that it isn’t really a cooking class, more a baking class, and after Quýnh’s weeklong course concludes, the baked goods start to appear. Andy’s eyes light up every time a new tray of sweets baked early in the morning (because apparently Quýnh’s an even earlier riser than Nile) is left on the counter and they usually demolish them in one day, swatting at anyone who dares to encroach on their baked goods. Quýnh has learned how to ice cookies and use frosting in this class, so she takes advantage of her new skillset to leave messages on her creations. In the event that frosting isn’t included, she’ll write little notes for Andy to find. It’s disgustingly sweet and not something Nile ever thought Andy would be into, but they’re clearly overjoyed every time Quýnh does something like that, and Nile remembers the advice she’d given Quýnh at the outset – <em>you still probably know them best, because you saw parts of them that we haven’t</em>. </p><p>Next come the earrings. Quýnh is fascinated by the changing fashion of piercings – “of course we had piercings,” she tells Nile one day while they’re at the jewelry store, “but the popular ones change over time,” – and she starts buying Andy earrings. Quýnh has of course drawn a neat diagram of Andy’s ear piercings in her ever-present notebook and looked up the name of each piercing so she can best ask the assistants at the jewelry store for recommendations, but even though she’s pretty prepared she’s still brought Nile along. Quýnh isn’t direct about this type of thing, but Nile thinks it’s because she’s trying to bond with her. Nile’s put some of her old piercings back in, and after Andy and Nicky explained the new technique behind getting piercings with her overactive healing abilities she’s gotten a couple more with their help, so it makes sense that Quýnh would latch onto this shared interest. Nile chokes a little bit when Quýnh moves over to the tray of nipple jewelry that the assistant's laid out on the counter.</p><p>“Are those for - ”</p><p>“Ah, yes,” Quýnh interjects. “I believe these particular piercings predate Andy’s first death. Andy never told me why they got them done or if there is a cultural pretext, but as they have never closed up - ”</p><p>“I never thought I’d say this,” Nile says, “but somehow you’ve just managed to make me think that there is still such a thing as too much information, and I live with Joe and Nicky.”</p><p>Quýnh laughs so hard she drops the nipple ring she’s holding. It looks like a flower. Nile will not be able to unsee this.</p><p>Quýnh wraps each individual piece of jewelry in little origami paper boxes (she has apparently been learning origami in the calculus class she’s currently taking, although Nile isn’t really sure how the two topics connect) and starts the process of hiding the jewelry around the house. She puts one on the couch arm, one in the silverware drawer, one on top of the washing machine. She starts opening boxes of macaroni and granola bars and crackers to hide jewelry in there until Nicky stops her, and then she tucks some into Andy’s coat pockets and shoes.</p><p>All in all, there are about 20 boxes throughout the house, and Quýnh looks delighted with herself by the time she’s finished. “Let’s see how long it takes Andy to find all of them,” she says to Nile, "we'll make it a game!" Nile makes a list of each hiding place, just in case one falls by the wayside or Andy gets bored or someone forgets and really, it's a cute idea but there's a lot of ways Nile can see this going wrong. </p><p>It doesn't go wrong, but it does take Andy about two weeks to find everything because one of Andy’s strengths is not, and never has been, finding small hidden things. They immediately switch out one of their older pieces of jewelry to replace with each new earring they find. Nile cannot attest to whether or not the nipple rings Quýnh purchased are also in rotation, but seeing as Andy's wearing some of the nicer earrings, ones that draw attention and are too expensive for carefree everyday wear, Nile thinks it's probably a case of Andy immediately putting on whatever Quýnh bought them and thinking about it later.</p><p>One day when she’s putting everyone’s clean laundry in their rooms, Nile sees all of Quýnh’s origami paper boxes, carefully arranged in a pyramid atop the dresser. It’s sweet, she thinks again, and it's still weird to think of <em>sweet</em> and <em>Andy </em>in conjunction, but Quýnh brings out a side of Andy that Nile's never seen, and clearly a part of them that Joe and Nicky also haven't seen in many years, judging by how they're acting. The relief and joy and happiness is palpable in their house, and although Nile's really enjoyed living with this group of people since about six months into her immortality, it's even better now. </p><p>Quýnh’s next idea for courting Andy is music. She’s taken the longest to learn about this part of modernity, but Nile thinks it’s because Quýnh loves music, too, and she’s been indulging in each new musical style as she discovers it. She spends a couple hours most evenings out on the porch of their duplex, now adorned with several plants and fairy lights, listening to Spotify. (Nile had found a refurbished iPhone and set up a Spotify account for Quýnh pretty much right away and given it to her as soon as Quýnh had gotten comfortable using the phone by herself.) </p><p>Usually it’s just Quýnh out there, but sometimes Andy sits with her and they talk in low voices in a language Nile doesn’t understand. Sometimes Quýnh and Nicky will sit together and listen in silence. Nile doesn’t often join Quýnh during the evenings because they’ll usually start talking after a couple minutes and end up interrupting Quýnh’s listening time.</p><p>Andy likes pretty much any type of music, but one of the things that surprised Nile when they first met was how much Andy loved classical music in particular. “Hard to top the greats,” Andy said about it to Nile one day when she pressed. “All those varied instruments working together to make something that complex and beautiful…hard to top it, really.” Quýnh – doesn’t love it. She never says so outright, but Nile notices that classical music doesn’t really feature in Quýnh’s listening hours after the first few weeks. She seems to like some of the more minimalist piano stuff that Andy identifies to Nile immediately as Philip Glass, but other than that, it doesn’t really feature in her listening rotation.</p><p>“Dress up tonight, my love,” Quýnh says one morning, pushing a newspaper advertisement across the table to Andy. It’s an advertisement for a concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and as soon as she reads it Nile knows Quýnh has struck gold. It’s outside, it’s for free so everyone who wants to can attend, and it’s an entirely classical program, all of which are elements right up Andy’s alley.</p><p>Andy isn’t as effusive with their emotions as Joe, but they’re bursting with energy all day, and are dressed in an extremely well-tailored suit half an hour before they have to leave for the concert. As Nile has predominately been the one wrangling Andy into formalwear the last few years, she appreciates how excited Andy must be. Quýnh has somehow unearthed a sleek black cocktail dress to match Andy’s suit over the course of the afternoon.</p><p>“You look incredible, my darling,” she says to Andy as she comes down the stairs, and Andy leaps up from where they’ve been sitting on the couch, one knee bouncing, to run over and offer Quýnh their hand for the last few steps.</p><p>“As do you,” Andy says, pressing a kiss to the back of Quýnh’s hand. Although Quýnh’s been the predominant giver of gifts in this whole courtship thing, a variety of gold rings have started to appear on Quýnh’s fingers, and she seems to be wearing them all tonight. Joe looks up from where he’s sharpening their extensive knife collection at the kitchen table and whistles.</p><p>“Looking good, boss,” he says, and Andy kicks the back of his chair as they pass.</p><p>“Don’t wait up,” they say.</p><p>“We’ll be back in three days,” Quýnh adds over her shoulder as they leave. “I’ve got us a hotel for the weekend.” The front door swings shut on Andy’s laugh. Joe just shrugs.</p><p>“Quýnh’s really upped her game,” he says.</p><p>“She wasn’t always like this? I know she’s taking it more seriously, but - ”</p><p>Joe sets his latest knife down and turns to look Nile in the eye. “Things are different now,” he says. “I know you know that in theory, but it’s hard to explain unless you saw how we lived, and I’m glad you never saw it.”</p><p>“She seemed really excited when I filled her in,” Nile offers. They’d gone over the sort of CliffsNotes of the state of LGBT+ rights around the world that first morning when Quýnh had come back, and they’d all talked about it together many times since then, but nothing had really matched the unbridled joy on Quýnh’s voice, and how she had laughed, when Nile had told her that she and Andy could get married if they wanted now.</p><p>“I can’t imagine,” Joe says. “We were so excited when we watched it unfold as we lived through it, and if I’d been in her position, missing out on all of that for almost 500 years – I would have been so overjoyed. Things aren't perfect, of course, but to be able to love Nicky the way I want to and show the world how much he is loved, at least in some places, is a greater gift than I could have ever imagined.”</p><p>“Our resident poet,” Nile says, waggling her eyebrows at him, and Joe reaches across the table just to grab a napkin and throw it at her.</p><p>“It’s what we keep him around for,” Nicky says, appearing silently, as is his wont, from the backyard. Joe tips his head up for a kiss as Nicky passes, and Nicky, of course, obliges him. “But of course, Nile, she acts like this in part because her time with Andy is limited. She knows that.”</p><p>“Shit,” Nile says, because they all know that, and it’s one of those things that maybe the others think about more, but she personally tries to push it as far back into the dark corners of her mind as it’ll go. She doesn’t want to think about a world without Andy. She hasn’t known them long, but Andy’s been – well. Without Andy’s brusque support and companionship, Nile doesn’t want to think about the emotional disaster she could’ve become.</p><p>“And we keep you around so we stay grounded in reality, lest we become too cheerful,” Joe directs at Nicky, and Nicky turns around to spray Joe with the hose attachment on the sink. </p><p>“I think it’s time,” Quýnh says to Nile one day as they are out in the backyard. Nile’s been gardening, which is something she never really had an interest in but thought she’d try out while they were stuck in one place, and Quýnh is unhelpfully pilfering the best of Nile’s flowers to make a bouquet for the dining room table.</p><p>“Hmm?”</p><p>“Our job here is almost complete, and I would…” Quýnh trails off. Nile nods in an attempt to convey that she’s listening as she pulls out a couple persistent weeds. “We will go our separate ways afterwards, yes?”</p><p>“We don’t have to,” Nile says. She sits back on her heels and Quýnh sits down on the ground next to her. She’s got on some anklets Andy gave her, three different gold chains that gleam in the sun. “We can stay together for a bit if you want, I’m sure the guys won’t mind.”</p><p>“Maybe,” Quýnh says. She gets reticent like this sometimes. “I would – like to propose to Andromache. I don’t know how to best go about it.”</p><p>“Well, I’ve certainly never been proposed to,” Nile says, digging her toes into the dirt. “Or proposed to anyone. The guys are a better bet for advice about that.”</p><p>Quýnh wrinkles her nose. “They are men,” she says disdainfully. “I love them, but they do not understand this sort of thing.”</p><p>Nile starts giggling. “Fair,” she finally says. “Do you know how you want to do it?”</p><p>Quýnh sighs. “I want it to be perfect, so she will always remember it for the rest of her days as a beautiful thing.” Andy’s switched back to using ‘she’ recently, and while Nile’s tripped up a couple of times, Quýnh made the change seamlessly.</p><p>“You’re already pretty good at that stuff,” Nile says, and Quýnh half shrugs.</p><p>“I am just nervous,” she says. Quýnh’s been working on being more emotionally open with Nile, in keeping with her therapist’s latest advice. <em>It’s so we can be better friends</em>, she had told Nile earnestly, and Nile had had to excuse herself for a minute so she didn’t actually cry in front of her. “I know she will say yes, but I…it must be perfect.”</p><p>“Well,” Nile says again, “you know what she likes best. But we’re all really important to her, family is important to both of you.” Since Quýnh’s come back, Andy and Quýnh have both instituted family dinners and family movie nights and family knife throwing contests. Nile’s loved every second of it. “If you include us somehow, or even if we’re just sitting there, I bet she’d really like that.”</p><p>Quýnh nods. “At the end of this job, then.”</p><p>Quýnh doesn’t ask Nile for much help with planning the actual proposal in the end. She does eventually tell the guys that she’s planning something, and Nile stores some stuff in her room in an attempt to keep the whole thing a secret from Andy. Andy’s nosy but she doesn’t go through other people’s stuff as a general rule, so Nile stashes a couple lanterns in the back of her closet and some copper beads inside a pair of socks she never wears.</p><p>It’s one of their last nights in the shitty Melbourne duplex that Nile’s become weirdly fond of when Quýnh sneaks in to collect the things she’s been hiding. Nile catches her in her room right after her shower, and quickly envelopes Quýnh in a hug, hanging onto her towel with one hand. Quýnh hugs her back tightly.</p><p>“I’m so happy for you,” Nile whispers into her ear, and she means it.</p><p>She’d thought at the beginning, after seeing what happened with Booker, that she’d resent at least Joe and Nicky for being together for so long and still being so happy. She thought that it’d rub her the wrong way, or wear her down and make her feel lonely or something. Nile thinks it was probably so hard on Booker because he had a wife already, but she loves her new family, so fiercely she can barely breathe with it, and she doesn’t understand (and hates Booker, sometimes, when she thinks about it too much) how she could ever want any of these people to be unhappy. The fact that these four have all found each other and fallen in love seems like a simultaneous bonus and blessing of their immortality, and honestly, Nile isn’t too pressed about it not happening for her – she’s gotten her head around how awful, but also how incredible, this immortality thing is even if she’s going to be by herself.</p><p>Nicky sets up all their food for that night outside in the garden and Quýnh sets up the lanterns. They eat and talk and laugh and afterwards Quýnh presents Andy with a box, then moves around to sit behind her to braid her hair – Andy’s been growing it out for a couple years, and by now it reaches the bottom of her shoulder blades. Quýnh’s got the little bag with the copper beads hidden in her pocket, and Nile knows she plans to carefully slip the beads on as she goes and count on Andy being distracted by the contents of the box. Nile doesn't really understand the context of the whole thing, but the beads and the secrecy and the implications seem to be a pretty important ritual element of the scenario Quýnh's got planned, and Quýnh's assured her that Andy will understand the whole thing, it's all got some personal significance for the two of them.</p><p>Andy opens the box and gasps theatrically, making everyone laugh, which in turn makes her smile. “Is this baklava, my heart?”</p><p>Nile’s messing with the grass. Joe is terrible at keeping secrets so Nicky is keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t give Quýnh’s plan away, which means that Nicky is either poking him or kissing him or catching his attention in some other way about every two minutes.</p><p>“Mhmmm,” Quýnh says, working the first bead over one of Andy’s tiny braids. “They tell me you like to guess what country it’s from, yes?” Quýnh’s gone over the rough outline of her plan so Nile knows what’s coming, but she’s still excited to sit back and watch this unfold.</p><p>“I can’t possibly eat six pieces,” Andy says to Quýnh, and her hand flies up to where Quýnh is pinning one of her braids around the crown of her head. Quýnh slaps it away.</p><p>“Do you want to mess this up before I’m done?” Andy settles with a grumble. “It is a lot, but I thought perhaps to celebrate the end of this job you should try to guess all six, no need to eat them all in one go. I haven’t seen you do this, after all.” Andy can’t resist a challenge, and she especially can’t resist showing off in front of Quýnh, so she unwraps the first piece and takes a bite.</p><p>Andy guesses the origins of the first five pieces correctly and passes them off to the others to try. Joe’s practically vibrating with excitement at this point so Nicky presses two pieces onto him to keep him from talking and spoiling the surprise. Quýnh’s managed to loop several long braids around the top of Andy’s head and is working on the large fishtail braid underneath, all without Andy noticing the addition of the beads – the baklava distraction was successful, at least.</p><p>“Is this one from Sydney?” Andy finally asks. Joe lets out a muffled squeak, probably because Nicky’s just slammed an elbow into his ribs to keep him from blurting anything out.</p><p>“No, my heart,” Quýnh says. “I’m afraid that one is from our kitchen.”</p><p>Andy spins around. “You made this? For me?”</p><p>“Yes,” Quýnh says, “for you. They told me it was difficult to trip you up, so I’m surprised that you did not catch this. Or notice me baking it.”</p><p>“I was busy,” Andy grumbles. It had been a coordinated effort among the four of them to keep Andy busy and the baklava hidden from her.</p><p>“Why?” Andy asks, and Nile can see it in her eyes, she knows what’s coming. Nile leans back on her hands a little bit.</p><p>Quýnh visibly steels herself and starts talking in that language that nobody except the two of them understand, which makes sense – Andy loves her family, and she’s more relaxed with all of them around, but she’s also still private about some things and the finer details of how she feels about Quýnh fall firmly into that private category. Nile doesn’t really understand what’s going on, but eventually Andy says something and launches herself at Quýnh to give her a fierce hug, and the relief and joy Nile can see on Quýnh’s face before she presses it into Andy’s shoulder tells Nile enough.</p><p>“See, Quýnh, you didn’t have to worry,” Joe interjects from across the garden, and Nile looks over just in time to see Nicky practically tackle him to the ground to try and get a hand over his mouth.</p><p>“Be quiet, you’re ruining their moment!”</p><p>“My love, you know how it is, they aren’t hearing anything that we say right now.”</p><p>“Then why would you say anything at all,” Nicky complains, and then their bickering switches to Italian so Nile loses the plot after that. (Her Italian’s getting better but she can’t keep up with them once they really get going.)</p><p>Nile tips her head up to the sky and tries to make out the stars amongst the light pollution, and lets the two separate conversations in two separate languages wash over her.</p><p>“We will go to Vietnam for the wedding,” Quýnh finally says, catching Nile’s attention. “And then we will travel for a little bit. Nile, would you like to come with us?”</p><p>Nile looks back at them. Andy looks happier than Nile has ever seen her, and Quýnh is practically glowing. Nile doesn’t ever feel like a third wheel, or a fifth wheel, but she knows the fact that they’re just asking her to come with them is significant in its own way.</p><p>“Yeah,” she says, “I think that’d be fun.”</p><p>Quýnh practically squeals with joy and Andy nudges her with her head, still smiling. Nicky and Joe have stopped at this point and so a hush falls over the garden, and they all sit there for a little bit, just to pause, and look up at the stars together. They eventually clear up everything and go inside, splitting off to go to their separate rooms, but Quýnh stops Nile with a hand on her arm in the hallway. </p><p>"Thank you, Nile," she says, and the sincerity in her tone is a stark contrast to the Quýnh of several months ago, guarded and nervous on the porch. "For helping me court Andy properly, in a modern way. I do love you so."</p><p>Nile is crying, which is a little embarrassing, but she feels that after the events of the night she's allowed a couple tears. "I love you too," she says, and she squeezes Quýnh's hand. "I'm so glad you came home." </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i've written two things involving proposals in two weeks, legitimately what is happening to me i'm gonna become the proposal go to person against my will</p><p>the inspiration for andy's elaborate braided hair comes from <a href="https://www.greece-is.com/untangling-the-caryatids-intricate-braids/">here</a>. piercing lore is <a href="https://ngoveronicas.tumblr.com/post/638137483592417280/you-can-see-the-piercing-mark-on-his-ear-on-the">here</a>. </p><p>i do my best in terms of research and preparation for my writing, but doing my best also does not necessarily mean that i have done enough in terms of accurate representation. if you find any errors, no matter what size, and decide to use some of your precious emotional time and energy to correct me, i will be a) honored and humbled that you have chosen to do so and b) make the appropriate revisions as quickly as possible.</p><p>happy new year, my friends! i am sending the best to all of you and i hope that 2021 treats you kindly.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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